Govt preparing national plan for manufacturing clusters

The government is preparing a national plan for manufacturing clusters with an aim to bring about convergence in development of industrial areas by central and state governments, Parliament was informed today.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that inputs from central ministries and departments and states have been taken for development of an industrial information system.

She said action for constitution of a committee to evolve cluster framework has been taken.

"Yes. Government is preparing a National Plan for Manufacturing Clusters. The Plan aims to bring about convergence in development of industrial areas by the central and state governments so as to bring about optimal utilisation of resources," she said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
 

Replying to a separate question on ease of doing business, she said the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) will carry out a comprehensive business-to- government (B2G) feedback exercise this year.

Under this exercise, feedback will be taken from businesses on the quality of implementation of the reforms claimed by the states and the UTs.

"For each state/UT, the scores will be aggregated over all the surveys conducted to yield an overall score for the State/UT. The feedback scores will be used to generate a ranking of States/UTs in terms of reform implementation," she added.

India ranks 130th in the World Bank's annual Doing Business Report of 2017.

The government's target is to improve the business regulatory environment of India and its ranking.

The DIPP has urged the ministries and departments to analyse the World Bank's latest Doing Business report.

"Nodal departments/ministries have been identified for each of the 10 indicators of the report. The departments in coordination with Government of NCT of Delhi and Government of Maharashtra are responsible for reducing procedures, time and cost across each indicator," she said.

Ministries have also been asked to carry out regular engagements with stakeholders and conduct workshops with the users and stakeholders to familiarise them with the reforms, take their feedback on a regular basis and take corrective action where required.